Chargesheet: Officer under Rashmi Shukla advised her against phone-tapping
The investigator said they have also attached the statements of eight other listeners at SID. These listeners are personnel whose job is to listen to the phone conversation and record important ones for future reference
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The Colaba police had registered a case against Shukla on March 4 on the complaint of Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Jain (Special Branch)An assistant commissioner of police (ACP)-rank officer, who has worked under senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla while the latter was serving as the State Intelligence Department (SID) commissioner and is considered as a crucial witness in the alleged phone tapping case, in his statement to police, has said he had told Shukla that she was flouting the rules by recording the phone conversations of NCP and Shiv Sena leaders Eknath Khadse and Sanjay Raut, respectively. The officer said Shukla, however, ignored his suggestions and continued with tapping the phones of the two leaders.
The deposition of the officer is part of the 750-page-long chargesheet submitted against Shukla on Tuesday. The investigating officials have also corroborated the said officer’s claims with the statements of other government servants who were then working in SID. The officer has further said a number of people in the department were aware that Shukla was tapping the phone conversations of Raut and Khadse.
The ACP has further alleged that he had told Shukla that tapping the phones of the two leaders “was wrong”. However, as per his statement, Shukla did not heed to his advice and turned him away saying she has powers to record conversation under section 419-A of the Indian Telegraph Act.
The investigator said they have also attached the statements of eight other listeners at SID. These listeners are personnel whose job is to listen to the phone conversation and record important ones for future reference.
They have told police that there was a conversation within the office that “Shukla is not listening to them.” Their statements have also revealed that they would record important conversations of Raut and Khadse, which were later heard by Shukla herself.
Shukla had sought permission from the then Additional Chief Secretary, Home, for tapping the phones by claiming that the phones belonged to two individuals S Rahate and Khadase.
Shukla has been charged under sections 165 (Public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in proceeding or business transacted by such public servant), 465 (punishment for forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of IPC and section 26 of Telegraph Act.
As per the data procured by the investigating authorities, police have learnt that Khadse’s phones were tapped between June 21 and August 17 in 2019. Raut’s phones were recorded from November 7 to 14 and subsequently from November 18 to 24. Their phones were tapped in the run-up to the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which took charge on November 26, 2019 due to which police have mentioned in their chargesheet that tapping of phones was done with vested political interest.
The chargesheet includes statements of 18 witnesses and other documentary evidence. Witnesses in the case are Khadse, Raut, a former additional chief secretary (ACS) and other personnel who worked in SID when Shukla was incharge.
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